An Unknown Path
by MegKF
Summary: Xander comes home after helping to defeat the Judge and finds something unexpected. Xander's family is not who he thought. Chapters 1 and 2 are old, I just never posted this to FF before.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Not mine, all characters belong to Mutant Enemy / Joss Whedon. Personal opinion: Fanfics are free advertisement for what they are fanfics of. _

**An Unknown Path - Chapter 1**

_It had started out a pretty good day. No… I take that back, it had started out a really bad day, another apocalypse around the corner, Angel loosing his soul, etc. But I think it's going to end a sort of good day. I feel pretty good about myself, I was able to use the soldier stuff I had learned from Halloween to help off the Judge. I would have preferred not having the bonus job of collecting the Judge's body parts though. Still it's a good night, helped kill an unbeatable demon. Got to give Buffy the best birthday gift ever, I'm not sure I'll be able to top this next year. It would have been better if Buffy had been able to dust Angelus instead of him getting away. I just hope she finishes him before he has the chance to do some majorly bad stuff. I've read some of the stuff from the Watcher's Journals, I don't want Angelus running around doing to us what he did to that Drusilla chick._ Xander paused in his thoughts as he caught sight of his home. _I can't even think good thoughts in my head without getting jinxed… There is no doubt that the day is going to end poorly._ There, right in front of Xander's house, were several cops. _I'm pretty sure it's got nothing to do with stealing a rocket launcher, if it was it would be army guys, not cops waiting for me, right?_ Xander took a deep breath, summoned his courage and start towards home. _I'll go deal with this, whatever this is._

"Alexander Harris?" one of the cops asked.

"Yeah…"

"Son of Anthony and Jessica Harris?"

"Yes. Is something wrong?" _Almost anything having to do with me and my dad has to count as something wrong._

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but this evening your father… Well he was really drunk, and he hurt your mother, she's in the hospital and we're detaining him at the precinct."

_Merciful Zeus! I never thought this would happen. I've never known him to do more than yell at Mom._

"Can I go see her?" Xander asked the cop. _I'm always nervous around the police, well Sunnydale police anyway. I think that since they all have no clue when it comes to the supernatural stuff that goes on in this town they overcompensate by focusing on the things they can deal with. I bet that's why they were so aggressive about Buffy killing robot Ted, even though she confessed to doing it in self defense. _

The ride to the hospital was taking so long. The cops started to tell Xander the details of what had happened, but he tuned most of it out. It turns out that his mom had been asking for him, she'd even told the cops that Tony had been hitting Xander. _I don't know how she knows that. Tony had always been very good at hiding the damage he did. I have records at every hospital in town, another thing to blame the hellmouth for really. All those churches and cemeteries and no one ever mentions the huge hospital and several, and I do mean several, smaller ones in one small town. Although none of the hospital records are that recent, he hasn't been able to hit me in ages. I've gotten really good at hiding and ducking… It really helps with the vamp dusting too… _

The cops want to have Xander checked out too and see if he wanted to press charges. _It looks like Mom has already started the process to press charges against Dad, turns out he'd almost killed her before the cops busted in. Our new neighbors had called the cops about the noise. They hadn't been here long enough to start ignoring things. Got to love the influx of new people into Sunnydale, come for the great real estate prices, stay for the lovely cemeteries. I can't believe I'd never noticed how many new neighbors we got, never wondering where the old ones went… Dang it Xander! You need to focus, Mom needs you! ARG! Why am I thinking in the third person?_

FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS!

Xander rushed through the hospital as the cops show him the way to his mother's room. They point to a door and tell him they'd wait outside while he talked to her.

"Mom! Mom, are you okay?" Xander shouted as he entered her room. _I love my mom, but she isn't always there, I think all the booze has addled her wits a bit, sometimes I have to remind her who I am._

"Alexander." She paused and said softly, "Xander. I'm gonna be alright, it might take awhile but I'm gonna be fine."

_She's sober, Mom's sober, Mom's never sober…_

"Mom… What happened?" Xander asked in an attempt at a more reasonable tone. He slowly took in her form, literally black and blue. Xander winced. _That had to have hurt, a lot._

"Tony was drinking, but today I wasn't joining in, he… He hit me so hard. God Xander, why didn't you tell me he hit you?" At that Xander looked at his mom, wondering again how she found out, hoping that it was a recent thing at that that she hadn't known for a long time and ignored it. Seeing the confusion on his face she explained, "Tony told me everything while he was hitting me. You should have told me."

"And what would you have done Mom? Beside I did tell you once, you were so drunk you didn't even hear me, but he did and hit me even harder, he said he'd hit you too if I told you again." Xander turned away, unable to look at her. He'd been so young then, unaware that he had other choices, other ways, to take care of it. Xander felt his mom's hand on his chin forcing him to look at her, she looked so sad.

"I could have stopped this ages ago, but you were a child and you were scared and worried about me." At this Mom paused and her hand fell down too weak to keep it up. She was thinking hard about something. "I should have told you this before, I just didn't know how. And I never realized it until now, but you've always been afraid of turning out like Tony haven't you?"

At this Xander got out of her reach and looked away again. He had been worrying about that a lot lately, afraid that he might hurt Cordy someday, even if the only people who knew about whatever was between them were his friends.

"I… Alexander, I never told you this before, I just couldn't, you were so young, but you've grown up while I wasn't looking haven't you?" At this Xander looked back at his mom confused. "Xander, Tony isn't your father." Xander did his fish impersonation. "Back in the late 70s I was doing drugs, and just about any guy I wanted, I might not look it now, but back then I was beautiful, I even won a couple of local beauty pagents… I think that's why I drink now, to try to drown away my regrets. I decided I wanted to see the world, I got my passport and left on the first flight I could catch. I went wherever the planes took me. In 1979 I ended up in London. I was just hoping for some thrills you know. Some new drugs, whatever came my way. While I was there I spent some time with this group of friends. I think they were all trying to be rebels, against what I don't know. I did however know about their orgies, I even participated in some of them…"

"Are you telling me you had orgies and I'm the result of one?" Xander asked shocked.

"Sort of," Mom replied as she reached her hand weakly back to mess with her hair in a nervous action he hadn't seen her do in years.

"I never want you to think you were unwanted Alexander. You might have been unplanned and a bit unexpected, but I was so happy to have a baby. I didn't find out I was pregnant until a couple of months after I had returned to that states. The drugs had really messed with my mind. Tony was my boyfriend when I found out I was pregnant. He was so sweet then, he had had a huge crush on me back in High School and he was helping me get drug free. We were always very honest with each other so I was very straight forward about the pregnancy. We knew you weren't his since he wanted to wait for our first time to be special. He was so excited anyway, he wanted to have children and he was willing to claim you as his own… When you were born there were complications and the doctors told me I couldn't have anymore children, I think that's what drove your fath- Tony, to drink in the first place, I think he started to blame you for the children we couldn't have."

"Do you have any idea who my real father is?" Xander asked trying to take deep breaths to deal with all this new info being thrown at him.

"Yes, your father is one of two men. They were the only two at the London orgies I found attractive." At this she paused again. "I tried to contact them when I found out about you, but the group they hung out in had disbanded and I didn't know their full names, I don't think the names they used were even their real names. I don't want you to hold anything against either of them, they still have no idea that one of them has a son. The names they went by were Rayneman and Ripper."

**End – Chapter 1**

REVIEWS INSPIRE ME

I wrote this chapter in August 2007, my first fanfic chapter ever. I originally wrote this chapter in the first person. So when I decided to work on finishing the story I ended up editing it to be third person. Because of the conversion from 1st to 3rd a lot of stuff was kept in as Xander's thoughts. Future chapters won't have so many random Xander thoughts in it. No matter how much I enjoy them...


	2. Chapter 2

_Buffy belongs to Mutant Enemy. No copyright infringement is intended. Fanfiction is, in my opinion, free advertisement. There are many things I've bought because I enjoyed fanfiction that crossed into a new fandom. I encourage everyone to purchase these products._

**Chapter 2 **

Xander collapsed into his chair as he stared at his mother in horror. Her words echoed in his head, 'Your father is one of two men. The names they went by are Rayneman and Ripper.' Xander started to breathe heavily as he began to have a panic attack.

"Xander?" his mother called out softly. She had been concerned when he paled noticeably. When he also collapsed into his seat she tried to sit up and reach out to him. She muffled a scream as her wounds were disturbed.

Xander snapped out of it when he saw his mother wince back in pain. He was out of his seat in an instant and by his mother's side. He sat down next to her on her bed. He'd panic later, when it wouldn't bother his mother.

"What's wrong?" she asked as he began comforting her in his Xanderish ways. She smiled gently as Xander began fussing over her. He hadn't done this in years. She lost her smile and frowned as she realized just how long it had been, wondering if perhaps it had been when she hadn't heard him telling her about his fa- Tony that had made him stop.

"Xander, please, tell me what's wrong," she said trying again to get him to open up to her. She watched concerned as he looked away from her and moved back to his seat. She reached out and took his left hand before he could get to far away from her. He reached back with his right hand and gently clasped the back of his neck as he sat down before turning to look at her and then away again.

"It… It's just a lot to take in Mom," Xander said softly, almost hesitantly. He wasn't about to tell her he knew both men. That one of them was his high school librarian and the other was a psycho who turned him into his Halloween costume. At least, he wasn't yet. After all, there was always the chance she'd run into Giles at some point and it could all come out.

Before Xander could say anything else, he and his mother heard a soft cough from the now open doorway. They'd both been so focused that they hadn't heard the door open. In said doorway was a nurse, behind her they could see a couple of cops waiting.

"Sorry son," she said softly. "Visiting hours are over."

Xander frowned, he'd been in visiting people even later than this in the past.

"Sir, you really need to leave now," the nurse frowned as she saw his confusion. "Is something wrong?"

"It's just… I've been here later than this before and was never told to leave."

"Some sections of the hospital have different visiting hours, depending on who is in charge of it."

"Oh," Xander said simply as he rose from his seat. That seemed odd to him, but this is Sunnydale, so it was possible.

"Xander," his mom called softly to him.

Xander turned back to her, reached over and kissed her forehead, "I'll be back tomorrow after school."

"Xander," she called out again grabbing his hand. "What were you doing here at night?"

Xander frowned, pulled his hand away from hers, reached up to tuck a strand of hair back behind his mother's ear, "Tomorrow." He'd figure out what to tell her once he figured it out himself.

Xander took one last look back at his mom as the nurse led him, with the cops he'd arrived with, to an office to discuss his legal choices. Basically for now custody of him would remain with his mother unless he had any objections, he didn't, though there might be visits from social workers in the future. There were a couple of offers to let him stay in a safe house until his mom was released, but Xander said he'd just stay with friends.

There was slight pressure to press additional charges against his dad-Tony, the charges against him already included attempted murder. Xander really didn't want to press charges when it looked like Tony was going to prison for several years anyway. He knew it would come out in a trial that part of the reason Tony hated him was because he wasn't his… Xander so wasn't ready to talk about this with his friends, and certainly not Giles, at least not yet.

Xander wandered around the hospital as he tried to decide what to do. Regardless of what he told the police he didn't really have any plans. He didn't think he'd be able to hold back telling Willow or Buffy about Tony and the Giles-or-Ethan-is-my-real-dad if he didn't have more time to adjust, so he'd turned down the offers from the police to drive him to wherever he was going to stay until his mom was released, or at least until his home wasn't a crime scene anymore. As it was he was supposed to call the police before he went to get any of his stuff from his house so a cop could go with him. Once again Xander couldn't help wondering if this was how cops worked in other places, or if it was just a Sunnydale thing.

Xander paused in his wandering as he heard movement, of something being dragged. He cautiously moved towards the sound. He reached into his pocket and was relieved when he felt the familiar wood of one of his home made stake. He shook his head quickly to shake the thought of mass produced stakes for purchase in bulk from his mind.

His eyes widened as he caught sight of a vampire in full game face dragging an unconscious, hopefully not dead, man after him. Xander moved back around the corner as the vampire did another quick look around. Xander tried to think of what to do, he was relatively sure he could get close to the vamp without being noticed, as long as the vamp didn't do another quick look around while he was approaching.

He closed his eyes for a moment before snapping them back open, just in case something would creep up on him. He couldn't even try tricking the vamp into thinking that he thought he was human since he was in game face. No matter how much some people in Sunnydale acted like sheep, no one was going to walk up to a vampire in game face, well, if they were also dragging a body anyway. Xander listened closely to the dragging, he'd wait until the vampire went around a corner and then go as quick as possible after him and that way he'd only be a couple of feet behind him, he just had to go straight for the vamp's heart.

There! Xander hurried as quietly as he could towards where the vampire had just rounded the corner. He listened carefully to the sound of dragging knowing that this was probably a fledgling since he didn't have the control to look human when using inhuman strength. Xander would have to accept that he actually listened to Giles when he was instructing Buffy, later though, after the vamp was dead. Xander burst around the corner, his stake held ready above his chest.

THUMP! Xander's eyes widened as the vampire dropped the man he'd been dragging and rushed him. The vamp grabbed his left arm and knocked him into the wall, Xander flinched as his head slammed back against the wall and his eyes closed as he passed out. He didn't get to see as the vampire accidentally impaled himself on Xander's stake and dust exploded over him.

**End – Chapter 2**

_REVIEWS INSPIRE ME_

_I wrote this chapter in March 2009. This story requires a lot more effort to write than some of my other ones. I'm hoping posting it here will give me the inspiration I need to continue it._


	3. Chapter 3

_Buffy belongs to Mutant Enemy. No copyright infringement is intended. Fanfiction is, in my opinion, free advertisement. There are many things I've bought because I enjoyed fanfiction that crossed into a new fandom. I encourage everyone to purchase these products._

**Chapter 3 **

Xander blinked as he slowly came too. His eyes stared upwards for a moment, recognizing the ceiling as one from the hospital, he'd spent enough time here to even know roughly what area of the hospital he was in by taking on more details. He turned his head slightly, his eyes widening as he took in the priest sitting next to him.

"I'm a minister actually," the man explained, chuckling slightly.

"Huh?"

"I take it you didn't mean to say that out loud."

"Uh, no?"

He smiled at Xander. "Thank you."

"Huh?"

"I think your concussion is still disorienting you a little. Last night you saved me from a vampire, so, thank you."

Xander's eyes didn't widen anymore, he didn't think it was possible, but if they could have they would have. Instead his mind moved quickly as he attempted to gain some control, over what he wasn't sure, but controlling the conversation was important for some reason. Darn concussion.

"You mean the guy with the sack? I think he was on PCP."

The minister chuckled again. "You were carrying a stake among other things on you. Plus when I was able to get help for you, the nursing staff was talking about you. The 'nice boy who's always bringing in the victims from gangs' is what they called you. I am fully aware of the supernatural, so you needn't worry."

With that Xander allowed his head to lean back against the pillow again and closed his eyes. Sighing, Xander spoke again with curiosity, "Why would a vampire be kidnapping you? He was carrying you in a sack. I've never known vampires to do that."

"That might have a little something to do with my blessing the water in my washing machine when it goes into the rinse cycle."

Xander's eyes popped open, "You wash your clothes in holy water? And that works?"

"That was the first time I'd put it to the test. It's not as good as actual holy water, but it was like my clothes burned him, he knocked me out after that. He could touch my skin fine. I'm lucky to be alive, he wanted to use me to get his girlfriend to come meet him, I'd convinced her not to go to her 'he faked his death because he was going into witness protection and he wanted her to go with him' boyfriend."

Xander didn't even want to try to figure out vampire logic. He wondered for a moment if the human he was before was dumb or if people lost brain cells when turned.

"I decided to stay with you until you came to, since your parents seem to be not answering their phone. Your school's librarian, of all people, came in to check on you. He said your friend Willow would pick up your homework and bring it to you after school. Poor man didn't seem to have gotten any sleep last night either."

"Yeah… I put him down as my alternate emergency contact," Xander shot straight up. With all the excitement and concussion he'd forgotten about… How was he going to face Giles at school when he got out of the hospital? Xander allowed himself to rest again, all this moving about probably wasn't good for his head. He reached his hand up to rub his forehead. God his head hurt. All this thinking couldn't be good for him. Plus he really did need to figure out if Giles or Rayne was his father, and if so how to tell them, if he even told them. He really really didn't want Ethan Rayne to be his father. But knowing his luck…

The minister just watched him. The young vampire hunter was somewhat amusing, although he was worried about how young he was. Most hunters were in their 20s before getting as active in hunting as he believed the teenager in front of him was. He smiled as he realized that Xander seemed to have forgotten he was even there. Xander had gotten one very important thing out of his concussion though, an unlimited source of holy water.

**End – Chapter 3**

_REVIEWS REALLY DO INSPIRE ME!_

_Once again the story I end up working on is not one of the ones I'm trying to finish, but this story has been stuck in my head for almost all of June so I'm finally writing it. Sorry it's been so long since I updated anything. I just got a full time promotion so I'm happy, I start in 2 weeks, but I'm unsure how that'll affect the speed of my writing._

_I'm also sorry this is short, and I don't know anything about concussions...  
_


	4. Chapter 4

_Buffy_ belongs to Mutant Enemy. No copyright infringement is intended. Fanfiction is, in my opinion, free advertisement. There are many things I've bought because I enjoyed fanfiction that crossed into a new fandom. I encourage everyone to purchase these products.

**Chapter 4 **

Xander was very thankful. He was thankful because he'd actually ended up staying with Minister Ryan. This, of course, meant he got out of having to tell his friends about what had happened, for a couple of days anyway. But eventually he'd have to show up for school. He had pretty good attendance at school, not wanting to miss the stuff happening with his friends and the demon of the week. Missing too much stuff with the everyday activities on the hellmouth would not be good. Eventually he'd have to return and deal with things.

He was still freaking about Giles maybe being his dad. Or Ethan… How was he supposed to deal with that? He wasn't even sure he could look at Giles knowing that he'd at least been present when he was conceived. That he'd slept with his mother. That he'd been in an orgy with Ethan and his mother. That… Xander paused and took deep calming breathes. You'd think after discovering vampires and demons were real that he'd find it easier dealing with stuff without hyperventilating. This was his 7th time today. If he was this bad, how was he going to handle school tomorrow?

Willow would take one look at him and know something was up. He wasn't ready to tell anyone what he'd found out and he didn't really want to lie to anyone either. He was pretty sure he could get out of details because, you know, his 'dad' was in jail, his mother was in the hospital, and Angelus was on the loose. But even his best diversions weren't going to work if he was hyperventilating. As it was the stuff happening in his family would be barely enough to cover for his lack of appearances since battle with the Judge.

Xander sighed, removing all the air he could from his lungs before sucking in as much as he could. They had more important things to deal with than figuring out who his father was, he wasn't even ready to tell Giles that there was a chance he was his father. Xander Giles. Xander Rayne. He went into a meditation stance; well what he thought was one anyway. Breathe in. At least he wasn't a Harris. Breathe out. His father was either his high school librarian with a secret job as guide to super powered girl, or a guy who turns people into their Halloween costumes and kidnaps said super powered girl and forces a tattoo on her. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in.

A certain minister couldn't help the snicker that came out of him when he went over to tell Xander it was time for dinner. Xander was slumped over slightly from a sitting position on the floor of his living room, snoring. He'd been enjoying the time spent with the teen. He knew Xander wasn't telling him everything about being a vampire hunter or why he kept walking in on him breathing in and out of a paper bag. Ryan knew however that there were normally dark reasons behind anyone's desire to become a hunter. As it was, he was one of the few priests that stuck around in Sunnydale, some knowing and some not knowing choose to leave they just knew they didn't want to stay here. Most of those who knew liked to pretend they didn't know, often those who tried to tell people had one last fatal close encounter with a 'gang member of PCP'.

Xander looked up as he heard a polite cough. He rose up as his stomach let out a demanding grumble. His hand rubbing against his neck slightly as he looked just a little to the side as he avoided looking into the grinning face of Minister Ryan. Xander walked silently next to him as they approached the waiting food. Xander smiled at the simple but homemade food in front of him. He was used to eating microwavable food, even when his mother was sober enough to cook she didn't normally but any effort into it. Although Xander was still a little embarrassed he thanked Ryan politely for both the food and letting him stay with him over the weekend.

"You're welcome Xander," Ryan said as Xander began to inhale the food set before him. He chuckled slightly. "Your enthusiasm is appreciated, I don't believe anyone has ever enjoyed a meal I made so much."

Xander glanced up, his mouth full of food and gave him a wide smile, with his lips thankfully closed. Willow had, after all, trained him well… Well enough that he didn't talk with his mouth full anyway.

"You know," Minister Ryan began as Xander finished off his plate, "eventually you'll have to talk to someone about whatever is bothering you. You must have friends who would allow you to stay with them."

Looking at his empty plate, Xander silently picked it up along with his glass and headed into the kitchen. Perhaps Ryan was someone he could confide in, there was no way he could handle tomorrow without bursting everything out to someone, and he wasn't sure Willow could handle this with everything else happening. Xander washed the dishes absent mindedly for several minutes before he realized what he was doing and placed it on a rack to dry off. Xander stared at the sink as thoughts bombarded him until Ryan finally entered the room with his own dishes. Xander stared at him, almost blank faced before sighing, "Can I talk to you?"

**End – Chapter 4**

_REVIEWS INSPIRE ME_

_I got a full time job in August, however I kept one of my part time jobs, so I've been working almost every single day that wasn't a holiday… I've had a lot of ideas during this time, my muse won't leave me alone when I don't have time to write! It's so mean! Recently I've received several reviews asking me to work on stuff and I'll try to work on some of them while I'm off from work for Christmas and New Years._


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